Spirit Reinstates Passenger Fee for Buying Airline Tickets

Spirit Airlines resurrected a $4.90 each-way “passenger usage fee” for booking either online at the carrier’s Web site or via its toll-free reservations line. The move came after negotiations with the Department of Transportation (DOT) as to how the fee should be presented to passengers. 

When Spirit first introduced the fee last year, DOT spokesman Bill Mosley tells Cheapflights, “They were not including [it] in their base fare. The rule says that the fare presented to customers should be he entire price to be paid. The only things that can be listed separately are government imposed fees that are assessed on a per-passenger basis.”

Mosley says the aim of the rule is straightforward: not to “confuse the passenger as to what the price is.”

Spirit dropped the fee in late July, and DOT fined the carrier $40,000 for violating its rule regarding full-fare advertising. In a consent decree dated Dec. 23, 2008, DOT wrote “These advertising practices…constituted an unfair and deceptive trade practice and an unfair method of competition.”

Now, Spirit is bringing back the passenger usage fee, but is displaying it in such a way as to fully comply with DOT regulations.

Says Mosley, “Spirit can charge a fee for buying tickets in places other than their ticket counters. [But] only if the fee is included in the price advertised on the Web site.” For example, “They can’t say that the ticket is $225, plus a $25 convenience fee. They have to say, ‘The price is $250.’ Under that they could say, ‘This includes a $25 convenience fee.’ But the amount presented to the consumer should be the full price to be paid.”

Mosley says the idea is to be transparent, and cut consumer confusion, “so that the passenger can tell what they have to pay – rather than having a base fare and some stream of add-ons they have to add up.”

The DOT spokesman says Spirit’s isn’t the only instance of this sort. “We had a similar enforcement action last year against Allegiant Airlines. They had a ‘convenience fee’ that they were listing separately.”

Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Misty Pinson tells Cheapflights, “We had a passenger usage fee in place for a very short time last summer, and we have been working with the DOT to bring that back. We’ve worked on an agreement with them to make that happen.” She says the $4.90 each-way fee is a way to “offset some of the [ticket] distribution costs.”

Now, Spirit and DOT appear in agreement as to how that fee’s going to be presented. “We want to be transparent,” says Pinson. “That’s the whole idea. We want passengers to be able to see exactly what they’re paying for.”

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler